[ Left-wing high schoolers describe how the anti-government
protests have provided a window for the mainstreaming of views long
deemed illegitimate. Young people are more willing to hear about the
occupation, army refusal is growing more widespread.]
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THESE ISRAELI YOUTH ARE BURNING THEIR DRAFT ORDERS — AND NO LONGER
FEELING ALONE  
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Oren Ziv
May 24, 2023
+972 Magazine
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_ Left-wing high schoolers describe how the anti-government protests
have provided a window for the mainstreaming of views long deemed
illegitimate. Young people are more willing to hear about the
occupation, army refusal is growing more widespread. _

Young protesters burn their draft orders for the Israeli army during
a protest against the government in Tel Aviv, April 1, 2023., Photo:
Oren Ziv / +972 Magazine

 

On April 1, in the midst of one of the weekly mass demonstrations
[[link removed]] in Tel Aviv
against the Israeli government’s judicial overhaul plans, a group of
around 10 teenagers gathered to burn their military draft orders,
after announcing that they would refuse to serve in the army in
protest of the occupation and apartheid. This symbolic act gained a
great deal of attention, perhaps buoyed by the recent wave of refusal
threats
[[link removed]] by
hundreds of reservist soldiers as part of the protest movement against
the government. 

From conversations with several of these high school students and
young people, it is clear that the protests against the judicial
overhaul and the political awareness that it has brought about has
accelerated the process of radicalization. Moreover, they feel that
other young people are becoming more willing to hear about the
occupation, while the issue of army refusal in various forms is
growing much more widespread.

“People are getting more into politics because there is no
choice,” says Sofi Or, a 17-year-old from the northern town of
Pardes Hanna, and an activist with Mesarvot, a network that guides
young people through the process of conscientious objection. Before
the protests, she says, most young people did not think much about
politics. “Now, young people who were not in the political scene are
open to hearing about politics — and not only ideas from the
mainstream. Even within the protests themselves it is easy to start
conversations.”

“If young people learn about the committee for the appointment of
judges [which the government is trying to control], maybe they will
also learn about apartheid in the occupied territories,” explains
Tal, a 17-year-old from Tel Aviv. 

Ayelet Kobo, another 17-year-old from Tel Aviv, is also active in
Mesarvot. “People around me have really changed,” they say. “At
the beginning of the protests, I organized students to come to the
‘anti-occupation bloc
[[link removed]]’ [a
group of protesters at the sidelines of the main demonstration who
hold banners and chant slogans against occupation and apartheid, and
wave Palestinian flags]. I met people who in the past might have
spoken about politics, but were not active. Now they are joining many
protests and coming every week.”
 

Young protesters from Banki wave Palestinian flags at a May Day
demonstration in Jaffa, May 1, 2023.  (Photo: Oren Ziv / +972
Magazine)
Kobo says the change is due to the fact that the demonstrations are
accessible to everyone. “It is expected that young people will be
more radical,” they explain. “The problem is that you hear about
terrible things but then don’t know about left-wing organizations
and how to join them. The [current] protests are so big that you do
not need to get to the other side of Israel to see them. You can just
leave the house on Saturday and find people who will speak to you.
This knowledge gave people the courage to join in.”

Many of the high schoolers who spoke to +972 are not sufficing just
with the weekly anti-government demonstrations in Tel Aviv, but are
also participating in civil disobedience and direct action. Some are
joining Palestinian-led protests in the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah
[[link removed]] in occupied East
Jerusalem, against the eviction of Palestinian families by settlers
and the state. 

Iddo Elam, a 16-year-old from Tel Aviv and a member of Banki, the
youth wing of the Israeli Communist Party, says that he has been
politically active since the age of 14. “Suddenly, I see friends who
never cared about such matters making throw-away comments like
‘It’s so terrible what [the government] is doing.’ Many come to
the demonstrations every week and are open to hearing about issues
such as occupation and apartheid. Many friends come to the radical
bloc and wave the Palestinian flag for the first time, when a year or
two ago they would ask me why I’m waving it.”

Elam claims that it was the power of the protest that brought about
this change – “you can’t ignore them.” What’s more, he says,
other young protesters who are not part of the anti-occupation bloc
pass by it on their way to the main demonstration — “they see what
we’re talking about, they ask their parents, and they watch the
news,” Elam explains. He also believes that the need “to fight
against more fascist people like [National Security Minister Itamar]
Ben Gvir and [Finance Minister Bezalel] Smotrich makes it illogical to
ignore the occupation.”
 

Anti-apartheid protesters take part in the weekly protest against
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government, Tel Aviv,
February 11, 2023.  (Photo: Gili Yaari /Flash90  //  +972 Magazine)
Defying their elders

In February, Uri Lass, the principal of Tel Aviv’s Ironi Dalet High
School, was reprimanded by the Education Ministry for calling on his
students [[link removed]] to join a
youth demonstration against the government’s judicial overhaul. The
day before the demonstration, Lass sent a message demanding that
students refrain from waving Palestinian flags; some of his students
defied him, forming their own anti-occupation bloc within the youth
march.

At the demonstration, one of the administrators asked a student to
stop waving the Palestinian flag. When the latter refused, the
administrator asked the police officer supervising the demonstration
to forbid the anti-occupation bloc from entering the main square with
the rest of the protesters, where the speeches took place.

Kobo views that demonstration as a great success. “We appealed to
young people we know, and the response was amazing,” they say. “I
didn’t think there were more than five or six left-wing kids in my
year. But I started talking and sharing things in the [student]
WhatsApp group and realized that we have a presence in the school —
that we have a voice. A few months ago, [students] didn’t know how
to organize, and now they send me selfies from [demonstrations in]
Sheikh Jarrah. It’s really impressive.”

Kobo was offended that the teachers denounced the bloc, but was
ultimately unsurprised. “In the end, the teachers’ job is to
preserve the establishment. They teach us history and civics with the
aim of making us think that Israel is the most moral country in the
world and that we need to enlist in the army.”

While Kobo and Elam were active in left-wing groups before this wave
of protests began, Tal became active only recently. “I was raised on
values of respect for other people, but I never went out to
protest,” he says. “At the first demonstration [on Jan. 7,
organized by the Jewish-Arab socialist movement Standing Together], I
went with my mom and listened to the speeches. The speech by Ayman
Odeh [head of the left-wing Hadash party] was amazing.”
 

Hadash head Ayman Odeh (right) among the leaders of a demonstration
against the new government in Tel Aviv, January 7, 2023. (Photo: Keren
Manor  //  +972 Magazine)
At the next mass demonstration a week later in Tel Aviv’s Habima
Square, Tal was already looking for Palestinian flags. “When I
arrived, someone asked me if I wanted to hold a flag,” he recalls.
After he took one and started waving it, he says he experienced
“verbal and physical violence,” but that this only strengthened
his desire to go out to the streets and protest.  

“Going to protests means experiencing radicalization every time
afresh. Police violence, tours in Hebron — every time I go out to
protest it strengthens my opinions,” he says. 

‘People are getting used to our presence’

The anti-occupation bloc, which has grown to around 1,000 people each
week, has become a meeting point for left-wing youngsters. A
significant number of them are members of the youth wing of Banki,
coming to demonstrations after meeting earlier at the Left Bank —
the organization’s headquarters in the city center.

“A lot of young people are joining,” says 18-year-old Einav
Zipori, secretary of Banki’s Tel Aviv branch. “There is a lot of
interest. The protests helped young people who might have been aware
of these issues to enter and do things.”

Zipori says that at the beginning there were arguments among the
leftist youth about whether to join the big demonstrations at all.
“In the first weeks it was problematic, but little by little
connections were made with other organizations and new people, the
[anti-occupation] bloc was formed, and people joined other activities
as well.”
 

The radical bloc at an anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv,
January 21, 2023.  (Photo: Oren Ziv / +972 Magazine)
And whereas members of the bloc initially faced a lot of aggression
from other protesters, the level of violence toward them decreased as
the weeks went on. “Many people who come to fight are also ready to
listen,” Zipori continues. “People are getting used to our
presence. More people are reaching out to us, and there is more
awareness that Banki exists.”

“The message we are conveying is that there is no democracy if it is
not for all,” says Or. “The current protests, which are supposedly
about democracy, are really a struggle to preserve the status quo —
returning to what we had before, where democracy was granted to Jews
only. We want to remind this protest movement of the occupation, the
oppression that Palestinians are experiencing, and their flag.”

“We oppose the reform, but we don’t only want to settle for
that,” says Kobo. “The mainstream protests demand a return to the
values of the Declaration of Independence
[[link removed]].
But we know that there has never been a democracy here. Not only
because of the occupation; before that there was the Nakba
[[link removed]], when people were deliberately
expelled to create a Jewish state.

“The protests say that if the laws are passed, Israel will not be a
democracy,” Kobo continues. “We say that if the laws are passed,
they will serve Israel’s anti-democratic essence since 1948. The
weakest people will be harmed: Palestinians in the West
Bank, Mizrahim
[[link removed]],
Ethiopians, and immigrants from the former Soviet Union.”
 

A young protester in the anti-occupation bloc holds up a sign that
says “We’ll die before we enlist,” Tel Aviv, April 29, 2023.
 (Photo: Oren Ziv / +972 Magazine)
Kobo is conscious, however, that while the anti-occupation bloc has
managed to assert itself as a legitimate voice in the protests, change
doesn’t only take place at demonstrations. “Protests are not the
place to change people’s opinions,” they say. “That happens in
more intimate forums, such as tours or ceremonies. The idea of a joint
[Jewish-Palestinian] ceremony [such as the joint Memorial Day ceremony
that took place at the end of April] appeals even to non-radical
youth.”

Tal’s experience shows that the anti-occupation bloc is sparking
conversations with other young people in the crowd. “There have been
countless discussions,” he recalls. “People are surprised by what
we think. At first they approach us aggressively. When we explain that
we just want everybody to live in equality, we don’t want to throw
the Jews into the sea, and that there is no reason for one people to
rule over another people, they will say: ‘That’s not so bad.’”

But despite the optimism, Or is aware that most young people do not
accept these positions. “The majority of young people in Israel are
right-wing. It has to do with the society we grow up in — a society
filled with militaristic, nationalist, and inflammatory messages,
which we are fed from a young age. There is still so much work to be
done before the message ‘democracy for all’ is seen as normal.”

‘We’ve reached the mainstream’

One of the issues preoccupying the radical youth in these protests is
conscientious objection. Some are preparing to go to military prison
as a result of their refusal, while others hope to get exemptions for
health reasons. The protests in Tel Aviv have seen future
conscientious objectors addressing the crowd in the anti-occupation
bloc. And according to those who spoke to +972, the fact that army
reservists are now openly talking about refusing has made it easier
for them to speak to other young people about refusing to be enlisted
altogether.

The first conscientious objector to be sent to military prison since
these protests began was Yuval Dag, 20, who is now serving his third
term behind bars. I met Dag twice — once right after the elections
in November 2022, and a second time after the protests started.
 

Four Israeli conscientious objectors (left to right) Evyatar Moshe
Rubin, Einat Gerlitz, Nave Shabtay Levin, and Shahar Schwartz, are
seen outside the Tel Hashomer induction base before their planned
announcement to refuse to enlist in the Israeli army, September 4,
2022.  (Photo: Oren Ziv / +972 Magazine)
During our second meeting, he explained how the reactions to his
decision to refuse had shifted over the past half year. “I feel that
there is more support [for my decision]. You see many more people who
go to the main demonstration with Israeli flags, and then encounter
the anti-occupation bloc and say, ‘Well done, we are with you.’
This has given me more strength.”

Dag attributes this change to the extremism of the current government
[[link removed]]. “It has become
clear to everyone that there is a deeper connection between Israel and
the occupation. There is a tangible example of what the government
allows, what it lends a hand to, and what it consists of. Suddenly
people are talking about Palestinians in the middle of Tel Aviv.”

Elam, who plans to refuse, says that the issue came up at school:
“We are now having a discussion in civics class about conscientious
objection, and many friends who may still want to enlist now
understand why people refuse to do so,” he explains. “They also
see conscientious objection by reservists and understand that the army
and militarism are not some supreme value, but something that should
be doubted to a certain extent and even rejected.”

Or, who graduated high school this year, will likely be sent to prison
in the coming months upon declaring her refusal to enlist. “I am not
refusing as part of the protest movement, like the reservists. I am
refusing because of the occupation and apartheid,” she says. “But
the general discussion about conscientious objection has allowed us to
reach the mainstream. People are far more willing to hear it, despite
the fact that there is still a lot of hatred.” 

_A version of this article first appeared in Hebrew on Local Call.
Read it here
[[link removed]]._

_[OREN ZIV is a photojournalist, reporter for Local Call, and a
founding member of the Activestills photography collective.]_

_+972 Magazine is the leading media voice of this movement, a place
where Palestinian and Israeli journalists and activists can tell their
stories without censorship. Our journalism disrupts the skewed
mainstream coverage and aims to promote justice and equality for
everyone between the river and the sea.
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* Israel
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* Israeli youth
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* Benjamin Netanyahu
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* Netanyahu government
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* Israeli protests
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* refuseniks
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* Israeli peace movement
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* Israeli left
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* Israeli army refusers
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* draft resisters
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* anti-government protests
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* Occupied Territories
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* apartheid
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* Mesarvot
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